This is an imprivised version of my old guide. Ill continue to add more things to this guide and post more improvements to it as eras go by but i do need your help proof reading and correcting things that are wrong. Eventually, ill start adding different technical guides for building and playing races, however this wont happen for a while :P. I added osiís magic section to this as wellÖ feel free to comment on whats wrong. This is basicly a general knowledge guide, nothing fancy. However, I recommend newbies to read this so they know what is what. If you are in search of technical strategies (such as for building) check out Hanky Pankyís guide

Building in Vu is trying to hit the same amount of populations with the same number of jobs. This is possible by using 1 building strat. 1:5. 1 Home for every Economic Building. (Mine, Lumbermill, or Farm) 1 home is equivalent to 25 population. 1 economic building is equivalent to 5 jobs. Hence, 1:5. (1 home = 25 pop + 5 econ buildings = 25 jobs = 100% production )

Armouries:

Building armoury cities is just like building production buildings. However, You are trying to get the 50% discount for every troop. This can be optained by building 50% more than you have homes. The strategy is 1 home to every 2 Armouries. You will see a discount each turn you get in armouries. However, you may also go with a 1 home to 5 armouries strategy (1:5) if you wish to gain a quicker discount or need fast discounts on level 5 troops. (1:5 armoury strategies should be used by all orcs)

Magic Towers:

Many have different ways of building these. The most common is a City with just Magic Towers. These cities are used to cast magic from. You may build homes in the city as well, this will give you space to house your magic units.

Blockers:

Blockers are cities or walls that block a path of entrance. They are used to protect your core and keep enemies out of it. You build walls in these cities and either Magic Towers and/or Gaurd Towers. You as well put Units in it. Most usually lv 1 troops (your first troop). If you put them in and the Blocker is owned by you. You pay upkeep. However if it is not your city, and you place your troops in it, then you will pay no upkeep. (this applies to any "allied" (or kingdom mates) town you place troops in.)

Armies:

Armies have several Sizes. The bigger it gets the slower it moves. You may merge the army as well. Merging armies you own means you put them together. One of the armies will disappear while another will stay. This can be done through the MERGE OPTION in the ARMY SCREEN. However, Merging into allied armies means you are adding your forces with your allys forces. But in seperate armies. Merging with an ally will automaticly make the army really slow. So moving seperately till you get close to the destination is the best way.

The army size is shown on the map and when you click on merged armies. Mounted units (level 3 troops) counts as three soldiers.

These troops are the weakest attacking/defending troop to use. They are used in the beginning widely as they are also the cheapest. Train these in the first week or so of the era, or if you wish to place defence into allied cities.

Level 2 Troops:

These troops are usually good for defending. They usually have better defence and offense then level 1 troops but they cost more. You can use these either to put in defence for your own towns or allied towns. You may also place them in armies, but not widely as it isnt your best unit.

Level 3 Troops:

These are usually your best unit. They are and should be used widely when attacking. However, they are the most expensive as well. But the cost is worth the unit usually.

Level 4 Troops or the Magic Unit:

Short For MUs. Magic Units are used for 3 things. Magic, City Magic Protection, and Army Magic Protection. The amount of magic units increase the number of magic defence you have. The more the better. As there are mages that would love to RoF or Slow your armies or Crush Wall or Dispell your Blockers. It is important to have at the very least .5 magic unit per attacking unit (lv 1, 2, or 3 units). However, it is recommended that you have a 1 to 1 ratio for magic units per other units in your army.

Level 5 Troops:

These are your special unit. Each Race has a different one. Ill explain each.

Dwarf: Cavemaster 3/3 Good for pumping into mines for defence and that they have the special effect to increase your Gold/Stone production.

Halfling: Adventurer 8/8 Good unit to have in armies. They find Various things from Science levels to Gold or more experience if you have a good amount of Experience in the army. However, This is highly random.

Elf: Archmage X/X Good unit overall. Costly yes but if you have high magic level they are great. The archmage has the attack/defence power 3 times your magic level. (so they can have 27/27 at max magic) They also count as magic protection units.

Orc: Nazgul 150/150 Good unit. Very strong however it is costly. Dont expect to have alot of these running around at the start of the era. But even 1k of these are super in an army. Nazgul are not affected by walls (as in, the walls do not prolong their attack or give double defensive power to the city nazgul are prepping on), however, the army must only be filled with nazgul to get this bonus.

Trolls: Beserker 30/20 Good unit and pretty decent amount to pay for them for being a Special unit. However they have the tendency of dieing or you losing more troops than normal if they are deployed in your armies.

Human: Catapult 40/20 good unit overall. Not to expensive. Its possible to have 10k-100ks of these guys. However The Knight is just as effective and cost less.

The cost for all troops start as stated in the box THE GUIDE, however The training costs will increase the more buildings you get.

Attacking:

Attacking is done by getting near the opponents City or army and having the option to attack. You will get a % from 0-99%. 70%+ are good chances for an attack and are usually taken. 50-69% are risky and should only be choosen to go for it if you need to badly and the outcome for winning would overwiegh the bad of losing. 0-49% are not to be taken. They are bad chances and you would lose alot of your troops taking the chance.

Preparing on a City takes time. Each tick your % goes up if you have a chance to take the city. However, if you start off with 0% you may not get far even with full prep time. The more prep time on a city usually means better % of success. Bad % mean MORE LOSSES!

Army vs Army

Armies vs Armies are critical. You will meet many armies out in the open field than a city. These battles are usually high losses if you lose with bad %. As of now, 100% on an army when attacked means 100% kills, any lower and some of their troops will survive.

Defending: Defending and losing means 100% losses. however, successfully defending against attack you still suffer loses but mininum losses.

UPKEEP:

Having Troops out give you upkeep cost which you must pay each tick. The more troops means the more upkeep. This is why having alot of lv 3 units in armies are best. As they are your best unit and you wont pay as much upkeep as to level 1s. Also you have Building Upkeep. This is always on. This keeps your buildings in check and running properly. Its a requirement to pay it and will be paid if you want to or not.

BUILDING CITIES:

Building cities can be done from the army page. BUILD COLONY option. The more cities you have the more it cost. Be wary. Dont build so many because they cost alot so try to build in open spaces so you can get bigger colonies. However, building 1 mine in the start near a mountain as close as possible will be very benefical. The more space around your colony means the bigger (max capacity) it can be/have. As of now, the max amount a building can have is 90,000 buildings. Also, if your wondering, how far away you have to be to get a 90,000 building, just be around 2 inches way from any other obstacle as you gain experience through the game, youll learn whats a 90k and whats not.

Land Bonuses:

Mountains- Give more Gold/Stone the closer you are. However you can get the same bonus if you have enough mines to "reach" the mountian. Max bonus is 7 gold / 5 stone. (however, dwarves can obtain more 9 gold / 7 stone (someone correct me if im wrong))

Forrest: Same as Mountains except it gives you 2-5x more wood production

Rivers/Lake: Same as mountains except it gives you 7-11x more food production

Bonus Turns:

The Bonus box. It hold up to 3 bts. Anything more you will lose. Bts are turns you can use anything. Either for more growth/training or strategic things. Saving them for important uses are great but dont use them if you dont have to. You can get a bt every 12 hrs you are inactive or by voting on the HELP VU tab.

New Player World: Beat this world this is your training world. Try to learn building/training and attacking here. Build 3-4 cities. One for each product (stone/gold, food, and lumber). As well 1 city for an armoury to train troops. Get atleast 1k troops of lv 1, 2, or 3. The First Enemy town is just north of your starting posistion. The Second is way southwest of you. Use your Bonuses to grow/train. 1= 1 turn so dont go clicking 50x. There are other ways of beating the toturial but it is recommended you do it this way so you have a basic knowlegde of what you are doing when you play in the real worlds.

Building Descriptions:

Homes: Supply housing for your peasants. Each home can shelter 25 population.

Farms: Supplys a source of food ranging from 7 to 11 food per farm (depending on the distance bonus). 1 farm gives 5 jobs to a city.

Lumbermills: Supplys a source of wood ranging from 1 to 5 wood per lumbermill (depending on distance bonus and race). 1 lumbermill gives 5 jobs to a city.

Mines: Supplys a source of gold and stone ranging from 3 to 9 gold and 5 to 7 stone (depending on distance bonus and race). 1 mine gives 5 jobs to a city.

Magic Towers: Gives magic radius (or casting distance) from how far your magic users can cast with full magic impact. This raises the chances of succesfully casting a spell from a long distance. This building also provides magic protection within cities.

Guard Towers: Gives a line of sight radius around the city. The more guard towers, the farther you can see. 1 guard tower gives 5 defensive power to a city.

Taverne: Raises morale in a city and armies on top of the city. (pretty much useless unless your having rioting problems from captured towns)

Armouries: Decreases the cost of troops in that city. The more armouries the less the troops will cost.

Warehouses: Provides storage for reasources. (pretty much useless unless you plan on stone to golding (STGing) which then it is very useful since casting on a warehouse city will convert big chunks of your stone into gold.) Attacking armies who take over a town with warehouses will gain more reasources from you due to the warehouses "stock" of reasources.

Walls: Provides double the defense to the city and prolongs preperation time on enemy armies. (nazgul are not affected by walls)

Race Advantages:

Humans: The Humans main advantages are a random discount at the market ranging from 0% to 10%, They have overall Cheaper science then other races and peasants in Human cities pay up to 10% more tax.

Elves: The main Elven advantages are Very Cheap Magic science, Archmages off/def is 3* magic level. and the Archmages count as one magic unit as well.

Orc: The Main advantage to the Orc is the Nazgul, They ignore walls when alone and have cheap upkeep due to smaller army sizes.

Troll: The main advantages to the troll are a great military and a boost to lumber production. They are also called the hybrid race, since they can perform well in both magic and military at the same time.

Dwarves: The advantages dwarves have left are the cavemaster, extra output of a mine and the lack of tree required to build . a dwarven mine produces 9 gold and 7 stone.

Halflings: Like the dwarf cavemasters, the Halfling farmers will work in the farms to generate more food.They do not like to invest time in science; they rather seek knowledge with adventure (adventures with experience can find gold and sciences if they have a good enough experience boost)

Halfling scouts will be invisible on the map.

The main advantages to the Halfling are farmers increase food supply, Scouts are invisible and Adventurers, these more then make up for the weaker military.

Magic Guide:

Some people think of magic as powerful and sometimes devastating, while others think it's useless and not worth it. Magic can be devastating if you do not have any defence for it. Each magic unit (the fourth unit) and magic towers will both help you defend from magic and cast magic. Each soldier, peasant and building also adds to your magic defence, but not close to the defence of magic towers or spell-casters. The best magic defence though, is to stay away from the caster as greater distance will decrease magic power.

The success of your spells depends on the magic power of the casting army or city and the magic defence of the target. The magic power will decrease along with the distance to the target. So if you want to max success and power, you should be right on top of your target. However, magic towers will even out the distance penalty. The more power the bigger the result will be and the spells will last longer. Be aware though, magic is very dangerous if you do not know what you are doing. The more powerful the spell is, the more mages you will loose if you fail the spell. Some mages will also die even if the spell is successful.

To Cast a spell you need mages. mages can cast spells at close range from inside an army but it isnít wise to do this unless you are casting Stone to gold so you donít use towers

Towers add range to your magic. This range increases up until around 20k MTs in a city. If you plan to cast spells on incoming armies it is wise to use a Magic city (towers and homes only) and put mages inside.

It is also a good idea to have a scout in your city so you can transfer mages to it. This is to tweak the % you cast on. IE why use 100k mages to freeze someone when you can use 60k and still get a very good % :) Use the least amount of mages you can to lower the losses.

The Spells

Level one

Utility scroll :- Happiness - this increases morale of the target

Combat spell :- Eye in the sky - this provides Intel on the target. (gives you the statistics of the city or army you cast upon)

Combat spells :- teleport - teleports the target (rarely works on cities due to lack of space apparently)

Level seven

Utility scroll :- Army of the dead - creates a small band of level three troops with 100 exp (you can not add to remove troops or merge this army, it also disappears when someone else casts Army of the dead)

Combat spell :- Ownage - take control of target (only works on same race)

Level nine

Utility scroll :- Control time - moves target army or city forward a tick or two

Combat spell :- Plague - causes a plague on target city

Level Ten

Utility scroll :- Armageddon - starts Armageddon.

How to cast spells

First you need to click SHOW MINIMAP, and then to the right of the mini-map are two icons. One is to build wall (the hammer icon) and the other to cast spell (the potion icon). Click on the potion icon and the mini-map will go back down and the spell menu will pop up. Select a spell you want to cast and double click where you want to cast it. A message will appear saying what percentage of success is casting that spell on that location. Then if you agree, cast it, if not cancel.

All cities/armies can cast all spells, you just need enough mages, it automatically picks the city/army with the highest percentage, so if it says you donít have enough power to cast then none of your cities have enough magic units, or if your casting on something thatís a good distance away then you probably need more magic towers

Note Utility spells can be used on kingdom mates.

Sciences Guide:

In order to further expand your empire it is often wise to invest in scientific research. There are many venues with which to spend your hard earned gold though, so choose carefully:

Military Science

Often the key to a decisive victory lies in the quality of arms and armour. A well-equipped fighting force will quite obviously fare better then one without armour or advanced weapons. For every level invested in Military Science, you will receive a 10% bonus in both offence and defence. (Advanced: It affects troops, peasants and guard stations and walls)

Farming/Mining/ForestingWhile military is important; you mustnít forget that a strong military must be supported by an equally strong economy. For every level purchased in one of these fields, you will receive a 10% bonus to production of that resource.

Mining science boosts both the gold and stone produced by mines.

Magic Level

For every level purchased you will be able to cast certain spells pertaining to that level, as well as making lower level spells easier to cast.

You receive new spells up until level 10. Level 11 will make you more powerful but will not provide you with extra spells.

Medicine

When you get inured troops, medicine will help them heal faster and less injured troops will die. It will also prevent child death and diseases, making the population grow faster.

The more you advance in science, the more it will cost to advance even further. If you upgrade your science in one area it will affect the costs in all areas.

There is no maximum limit in level of science. (so you can have lv 99 military :P you just need the gold and reasources for it lol)

The recommended way to invest in sciences is dependent on what you will be playing in the role of your kingdom. If you are going to be a mage for your kingdom, invest in magic early and donít increase any other science until level 9 magic is complete. If your going to an attacker/defender, investing in military sciences early will help you in decisive military battles. Mining science are always recommended, but usually you should wait till you have atleast 500,000 income or more to start investing, since the gains with mining science at early stages are not worth the cost. Medicine, farming, and lumber sciences are uselessÖ donít bother increasing these at allÖthere is no point.